Photograph: Werner Schmidt

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Bonding With Your Children

As a parent in the 21st centuary, you would like to bond with your children. Just look at HTBS’s Greg Denieffe who took his young daughters Hannah and Maeve to the Olympic Rowing Regatta at Eton Dorney (in a cute post published earlier today). I try to bond with my children, too. Yes, you guessed right, I try to lure them to different rowing events as well. So far, they have been to a couple of the Yale-Harvard Regattas on Thames River in New London, and to one Head of the Charles in Boston.

Before our son Anders, soon to be 7, was born, Mrs. B. and I took our then barely 3-year-old daughter Ingrid to London, where I, of course, dragged them both out to Henley-on-Thames to visit the River and Rowing Museum. What a visit! Poor Ingrid was ill, and it truly was a vacation in Hell! (There is no room for details on this blog.)

Ingrid is doing much better now, and just look how she is handling the sculls in the picture above.

I don’t know if Anders will ever be into rowing, but with his length, weight, and attitude he would be a brilliant cox. Of course, right now he is mostly interested in playing with his Lego toys. Thanks to the British newspaper The Guardian’s Olympic ‘Brick by Brick’ series, Anders and I found a very happy father and son moment when we watch the Guardian-Lego version of the Men’s Coxless Fours’ A Final where GB’s Alex Gregory, Pete Reed, Andrew Triggs-Hodge, and Tom James took an Olympic gold.

Watch the race below:



I will try to remember this very special moment Anders and I had next time I step on a little Lego piece on the rug in the living room….

1 comment:

  1. Travelling on the London Underground (‘The Tube’) is not usually an especially pleasurable experience but my journeys during the Olympics have given me a certain amount of pleasure. Firstly, the constant overcrowding and system meltdown that some predicted has not happened. Secondly, complete strangers (including the usually reserved British) obviously on the way to an Olympic event will strike up conversations with each other, often swapping tips to get the best out of the place in question. Thirdly, the Games seem to be one of the few things that unite families with children of all ages. The palpable excitement of a family group off to see the sport of their choice is delightful to see.

    Tim Koch.

    ReplyDelete